Blue Jays Select Eric Sogard, Option Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

April 15: The Blue Jays announced the move. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Sogard, the team has transferred left-hander Ryan Borucki from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. Borucki has already been on the IL all season but will now be definitively ruled out until May 27.

April 14: The Blue Jays are sending infielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to Triple A, per Scott Mitchell of TSN Sports. Gurriel the younger was removed from today’s game for a “mental break” per manager Charlie Montoyo. The team hopes their young infielder can get back on track with a Triple-A reset, per Mitchell (Twitterlinks). MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm tweeted about the possibility of a Gurriel demotion earlier today.

While Gurriel Jr. heads to Buffalo, veteran infielder Eric Sogard is set to join the major league roster. The spectacled Sogard received the bulk of his big league playing time with the A’s from 2010-2015, where he slashed .239/.295/.313 over 1331 plate appearances while playing second, third and short. He spent the last two seasons with the Brewers, hitting .234/.351/.318 across 412 PAs.

Gurriel, meanwhile, has flashed moments of athletic playmaking, such as when he stole home off of Chris Sale last week, while also misfiring on a pair of routine throws from second base. An overall rough go of it at the dish (49 wRC+) also likely bolstered the case in favor of demotion. Given the long-term, if reasonable, financial investment the Blue Jays have made to Gurriel, he likely gets ample opportunity to figure it out, though there’s also little reason to rush him back to the majors. Toronto owes the 25-year-old infielder an average of roughly $3.14MM per season until he hits free agency after the 2023 seasons.

He can’t throw to first base. It’s obvious a mental issue. It sucks to because his bat was just beginning to come around as well. But if he’s not going to provide anything on defense, he’s gonna have to at least make up for it with the bat. And he hasn’t done that at all.

I’d argue that when in doubt, MLB management LOVES to send a message to their team and to blame players when every true fan knows that losses are rarely one play or one players fault? (Jays are 26th. out of 30 hitting)

I do like Sogard, but what does this do? You’re not going to learn anything about him or see any upside with him in the lineup. Might as well have brought up Biggio, Bichette or basically anyone younger.

Gurriel’s footwork around second base, on DPs receiving and throwing to 1B on DPs needs a lot of work. Gurriel may also start taking balls in the OF in Buffalo. That Anthony Alford many Jays fans felt is better than Kevin Pillar RIGHT NOW, is struggling in Buffalo. A perfect example of how Jays fans are lied to by the media. That said….

“We feel Brandon Drury’s .100 average and weak offensive display is more important to us than kick-starting Vlad Guerrero’s career and potential march to Cooperstown. Much like our predecessors, we hate rewarding successful play. That is why we have promoted Eric Sogard. Giving young prospects a chance to play in the major leagues is never the right move to make.” – paraphrasing Blue Jays management.

If not Vlad, Cavan Biggio. Even Urena, who can play SS. Hanson and Brito can be dropped at anytime. Nobody will miss them. Blue Jays organization is not run by men hungry to win, from ownership down. That is why they’ve made two playoff appearances in over 25 years.

The prospects will arrive and will play. There’s no rush. In fact, keeping them down longer controls the service time and costs in arbitration. Drury has been a pretty decent player in the past. Three weeks is nothing, especially when it’s a lost season.

Drury has been a decent player never. He should be taped to the bench and should only play against lefties to spell Tellez. There is zero reason to have players not worthy of a major league spot playing over Biggio or Vlad, period. The loser mentality of the Toronto Blue Jays and it’s fanbase needs to stop.

It’s not silly. He is not good, never has been good and won’t be good so long as he stands far away from the plate. He cannot touch the outside and any slider/curve that’s just ok can get him out. He is a bench player and nothing more.

It can’t be Urena, he was optioned too recently. He has to stay down there for at least 10 days unless there’s an injury.

And about Drury and most of the struggling hitters in general, any struggling hitter looks worse than he is at the start of the season when he has no stats. If a guy goes 0-for-12 in August, you barely notice.

Sogard is a stop gap move,,,,,,,,he’s here until vlad is called up next week,,,dury moves to 2nd. If Gurreil is going to crack the jays,,,they should get him in the outfield in Buff,,,,that’s our only available spot for the future,,,,,If Teoscar starts to hit, we should trade him for the first case of batting practice balls offered

Wow, demoting Gurriel Jr? Really? Over getting rid of Brito who won’t make it anyways? Calling up Sogard? Cough, cough.

Anyone notice Pillar is doing very well in San Fran. And this Jays Mgmt got virtually nothing of value for him?

Folks, I am hearing that Gurriel Jr is dealing with a personal issue that he needs to work out and it is severely affecting his play. Once it gets sorted out and he works through all the stuff, he’ll be back. He has a shot at being elite.

He’s miles better than Grichuk in CF and Alford is proving, so far, he isn’t ready for AAA, let alone the major leagues. And people think Alford is better than Pillar right now. Give me a break.

Cut Brito and Hanson. They are just minor league hacks blocking young players from growing. Same gameplan over and over again has not worked in Toronto. I don’t want to hear the crap about service time. Deadline is done, bring them up, stop playing mind games.

How can Shaprio and Atkins have a job? Would Gillick put the organization through all this? Would Cashman put the Yanks through this?

What shocks me is the weak professional scouting skills of making trades/claiming/keeping many pieces[Mckinney, Brito, Hanson, Pompey, Travis, Leiter Jr,, Grichuk.. etc etc], that are marginal help longterm.

The only blemish on Gillick I could think of was late-March 1993. Darrin Jackson for Derek Bell and releasing David Wells all within 24 hours. But, that professional scouting problem you bring up has been a problem since the Ricciardi purge, firing Gillick/Ash guys to bring in his brand of misfits. They haven’t been the same.

I couldn’t agree more. As has been shown by other organizations, you can make the team younger, and still remain competitive. The Jays has many top quality pieces in their organization that they could have traded for good prospects or younger MLB players, or perhaps even have retained certain free agents, but they chose to let everyone leave as free agents, or traded them for average players or average prospects. Nobody can make sense of what they are doing? Just look at Alen Hanson and Brito….that’s just a small example!

He is still a quality player that managers love to pencil in the lineup. And he better than anything else the Jays have in center.

Might as well have kept him until the trade deadline and got back at least one good prospect that will make the big leagues instead of “minor league hacks” and a arm that will likely never make the big leagues.

I’m sure nobody can figure out Shapiro and Atkins. They’ve gradually gotten rid of almost every part of what once was a pretty good team, with little or no return for those players. They have some nice prospects coming along, but they’re not successful major league players yet….still prospects!

I hope there’s some improvement as the year goes along because this is pretty difficult to watch right now, in spite of some pretty good pitching, especially by the starters!

I hope I’m wrong, but I think the Shapiro hiring will go down as one of the worst hires the Blue Jays have ever made!

AA and his staff had zero faith in Pillar. Kept him in AAA longer than he deserved in 2014, stood behind the greats like Colby Rasmus, Anthony Gose. Dalton Pompey and Michael Saunders. Pillar would’ve never been given a chance had AA and his team had their way.

But missing from your list is all the top pitchers from AA’s list, yes lots were traded to make a run at it but there best players and prospects still are because of AA, NOT Shapiro and Atkins (Sanchez, Stroman and some kid named Guerrero!).

“Shatkins” got rid of all them pieces bc of ideological differences with AA (the previous GM, who left when the Shatkins were hired). Their perspective is to buy cheap and grow resources rather than buy them, which I suppose works outside the AL East.

He has the yips. Let him work on them in a less stressful environment than MLB. Clearly not a planned move with Urena just sent down (though someone (Luciano) could’ve been DLd with ERA inflammation ti call him back up).

Vlad isn’t ready. He will be up when he is. Bo is hitting .200 at AAA and Biggio has legitimate defensive issues to work out. It’s a rebuild. Relax.

I agree with you about Bo and Biggio. Biggio needs to learn defence. His bat will transfer well to the big leagues. Bo, not so much. As we saw last year with Bo’s slump in AA and his current issues, he is going to be a below average bat in the big leagues.

Why would you waste him in AAA when the plan is to bring Biggio up later this season anyway? 7 years of control over a 24-year old Biggio is perfect.

Vlad I understood, kinda. However, “eye test” says he’s laying waste to minor league pitching. Rehab over, bring him up. If the clock matters that much to you then keep Vlad in Buffalo until 2020. See how that argument goes over.

Biggio’s defensive numbers at 2B in the minors are good enough. “Eye test” says he’s better at 2B than Bichette at 2B and SS. And Vlad at 3B.

Or they should have dropped Gurriel instead of Urena in the first place. The weekend games didn’t suddenly turn everyone sour. No Vlad is ridiculous. His agent should ask for a trade, and I wouldn’t blame him one bit.

Agreed Urena should be in the bigs starting along with galvis as those are the only guys currently hitting. Brito on the other hand was a head scratcher when we got him, and hanson so far seems like a bench type player

Kinda nice to see them react to someone so obviously struggling. Not understanding some of the confusion on players selected. This is pretty obvious to me, it is a short stay for Sogard. Honestly if I was lucky enough to be him I’d leave my stuff packed hoping for a waiver claim once Vlad gets promoted

Don’t agree with this. Gurriel is long term commitment. Jays should be ok with mistakes on the fly at this level. Dwight Smith jr. was an obvious misjudge of there own talent. No reason for Vlad no to be here now. No reason to keep Hanson here. I’m all for a rebuild, but it shouldn’t be Ross Atkins.

I hear you PTSD. Smith was never given a real shot. As for Gurriel, if he is going down to work on his physical mechanics and/or learning to play OF I’m ok with the demotion. However, Vlad should be up so he can be tested and perhaps humbled by the best in the world.

I loved Smith as a hitter and can’t believe they essentially traded him and Rodrigo Orozco. for Brito and 1m in international money. Yikes what a bad deal.

Gurriel Jr will be fine. He has to work out some personal issues and he’ll be back. He is still very young wrt major league calibre players and also very young in character. He is going to be a very good player. Signing Gurriel Jr was a good move for Atkins/Shapiro.

There is no reason to have Hanson and Brito and Pompey on the 40 man roster. Brandon Drury needs to be sent down to work things out. He still can play but perhaps the meds he is taking for his neck issues are causing his hand eye coordination to be severe;ly affected at the plate. The big leagues is not the place to sort that out.

The marketing geniuses in the front office have tied their franchise to the son of a base ball legend. Hope he delivers, otherwise the failing franchise will be out of Toronto faster than you can say Las Vegas.